Why do I go to every possible Young@Heart choral concert year after year – even though it’s a two-hour drive each way? Because I am always moved to the point of crying multiple times (three times tonight) during the show; and because I experience joy when I see and hear them, something otherwise too much absent in my life. The chorus is made up of elders and is based in Northampton. Yesterday’s matinee was titled “Mash-Up” and featured collaborations.
First the bad news. Their first collaborators, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Men’s Ensemble, proved to be the absolute antithesis of Young@Heart. The “men” were young teens. Their uptight control-freak conductor Kristopher Burke, his neon orange socks aside, took about a dozen lads, denied them of their right to smile, sway, or move their arms which were uniformly rigid at their sides. The guys were stripped of all personality and their music of all passion. Instead of even a hint of choreography, the kids stood in uniform stiffness. They were such a contrast to Young@Heart, who shake their aging tail feathers a good deal, that I felt they may have been invited to collaborate as a surreptitious means of exposing them to the possibilities of music to enrich and excite life. Free the “Men’s” Ensemble!
The good news is that Young@Heart’s continuing work with inmates at prisons has produced enduring close relationships. See the clips below for two of their prison project performances. Several of the inmates (or former-inmates) have become integral add-ons to Young@Heart. Daniel McNair and Jesse Carrillo, two very different singers, created duets and confident solos and entered the fabric of this amazing group of elders.
The group’s standard encore performance is Dylan’s “Forever Young,” and this time the lead-off soloist was one of the young guys from this project. I weep at their rendition every time as I watch the Young@Heart regulars age and become frail, even as they persist is creating gorgeous music. They are so professional in their work that when one singer collapsed on stage, three of the strongest got her up, moved her to a chair just off-stage, got her water and a blanket, and quickly returned to their places onstage to continue singing. It was the intersection of “the show must go on” and the culture of caring their amazing musical director Bob Cilman has created. The material they perform is full of social commentary, resistance, and hope, not the least member John Rinehart's heartbreaking rendition of "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke.
One postscript: Young@Heart's newest sponsor is NETA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. When Bob announced this (and clearly it's a match made in heaven), the crowd cheered. He said, "I'm glad I live in this bubble!"
Check out the clips and the documentary listed below and share in the joy.
Young@Heart Chorus performs "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan with soloists Elaine Fligman (RIP), Jack Schnepp, Lenny Fontaine (RIP), and Eileen Hall (RIP) in the prison scene from the film "Young@Heart" now available on DVD and iTunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ouyC24IFlo
Young@Heart performs live with the Old Souls, an all-male inmate chorus at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction, on May 9, 2015 concert in the prison for inmates and staff, as part of The Young@Heart Prison Project. Soloists are John Rinehart and Chris Barre. Filmed & Edited by Kazuhiko Iimura.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDz1KSiJ8QM
The documentary about Young@Heart:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/young-at-heart/
You MUST promise to take me along next year. No kidding!
Miss Suzie
Posted by: Sue Kelman | 21 November 2017 at 16:11